Poll: What’s Your Opinion On The New Starbucks “Local” Coffee Shops?

by Mike on July 18, 2009 in Polls

15th Avenue Coffee And Tea This week’s poll question is: “What’s Your Opinion On The New Starbucks “Local” Coffee Shops?”

The coffee is going to be the same, but Starbucks is making a handful of coffee shops that won’t be like any of their other locations. They won’t have the name Starbucks on the door, or even on the bags of coffee that they’ll sell inside. Instead the names will be more independent sounding like 15th Ave Coffee And Tea. They’ll be constructed to look more like the other businesses in the neighborhood, instead of a nationally recognizable chain.

The changes don’t stop there. They’re going to start serving beer and wine, like the trendy coffee bars that have popped up in many major cities. Also, they’ll be hosting live music, book readings and poetry events. It sounds a lot like my favorite local coffee shop. Some people say they’re imitating or even directly copying some of the coffee shops that are already in the neighborhood

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one, so I’m interested to see what the final product will look like. What’s your opinion?

Here’s some more reading about their new coffee shops:
Starbucks Tests No-Name Store Serving Booze
Neighbor: Starbucks stole my ambiance

Last week’s question was “How Often Do You Clean Your Coffee Maker?”

I have to the applaud the majority of you, 29% who said weekly. I wish I had the time every week to clean mine.

Tied in second place was once a month with 21% of the vote and whenever my coffee starts to taste bad.

Never was a lot higher than I thought it would be – 17% Here’s an article that I suggest you guys read.

Twice a month had eight percent of the vote.

And every other month had four percent of the vote.

Thanks everyone for voting!

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Tagged as: 15th Ave Coffee And Tea, coffee maker cleaning, Starbucks

Article by Mike Crimmins

Mike Crimmins is the highly caffeinated blogger behind Daily Shot Of Coffee. Besides drinking way too much coffee, he's obsessed with the Yankees and getting dirty on his mountain bike.

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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

rose casanova July 18, 2009 at 10:02 am: You know things are getting weird when corporations start posing as local. This is an unusual move by Starbucks and a little creepy. It will be interesting to see just how much of the Starbucks brand they are willing to hide or suppress for the sake of the neighborhood/community ambiance.

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Mike July 18, 2009 at 10:05 am: I read somewhere that it’s kind of like Starbucks is having a midlife crisis. I can see how it is, they’re trying to be like the younger, hipper coffee shop down the street. They may be buying Miatas soon.

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Tara Kennedy Aiken July 18, 2009 at 10:48 am: I am very interested to see how this pans out. On one hand I see it attracting a good crowd, mainly due to the recent focus on support of local/neighborhood businesses (especially with the current economy).

However, it could turn into a partial loss of business. Starbucks is a big brand and they could lose some of that all-important brand recognition with the new names.

Personally, I do like the addition of alcohol and live music/poetry readings. I would love for our shop to be large enough to do that, but we have limited space.

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Chameleon@CoffeeBreak July 18, 2009 at 11:46 am: Fake is fake. When you have to do “research” to create something “authentic”, it sorta loses its authenticity. They worked very hard to create a “brand” – and they’ve found that it’s not so easy to shake the image they created for themselves. Instead of rebranding, they’re UN-branding. It strikes me as deceitful – they benefit from all the perks of being a major corporation – the buying power of buying in bulk, the big money to sustain them through the first-year break-in time, etc – but pretend that they’re just another mom-and-pop neighborhood shop. I suspect, though, that the packaged authenticity will start to feel packaged within a few stores.

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Extreme John July 18, 2009 at 12:25 pm: Im not really a big fan of Starbucks, however I do think it’s an excellent business move on their part.

Not everyone wants a national brand, many cities like NY make that clear when it comes to Pizza shops, Pizza Hut just doesn’t cut it.

We had one of the PJ’s of New Orleans that had the wine/coffee thing going on, lasted about three months sadly.

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Mike July 18, 2009 at 12:26 pm: Tara – Yeah, I’m really curious to see how it pans out and how the general public reacts when it actually opens.

Chameleon – I think that’s what I don’t like about it, the fact that it is a little deceitful. I think if they focused a lot more on trying to focus on all of the good, responsible programs they’re doing it, it would be a lot better than worrying about what the mom and pop coffee shop is doing down the street.

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Mike July 18, 2009 at 12:30 pm: John, I hear what you’re saying, actually agree with it. Except this is like Pizza Hut trying to turn into a neighborhood pizza place in the middle of Brooklyn.

I think it sometimes works for a company from a specific region trying to expand into another, but not the other way around.

Never heard of PJ’s until now. Wish they still had one here.

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Tara Kennedy Aiken July 18, 2009 at 2:39 pm: Chameleon-I agree that it is unfair that they are trying to reap the big name benefits while trying to be a local shop, but it could be a smart business move nonetheless.

Great point Mike—As a huge brand with options, they really should focus more on the responsible programs they are doing. Starbucks has the means and capacity to be involved in so much good. No one can be an expert at EVERYTHING! =)

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Jennifer July 19, 2009 at 2:50 pm: I didn’t think I could dislike Starbucks any more than I already do (I know you hate me for saying that) but this….. this makes me never want to go every again (except for Peppermint Mochas…..I don’t have that much willpower)

First their giant mega-conglomerate puts all the little coffee houses out of business, and now they are going to dress themselves up as one? That’s just wrong. And, I’m sorry, you can dress a wolf in sheep’s clothing but it’s still a wolf!

I think this would have been fine if the company started off this way back in the day. Let’s say…. oh I don’t know, when they opened up a store on the corner of a Main Street in small college town in upstate NY called New Paltz….. It would have been great to have them come in as a cute trendy coffee shop and not the mega-corp. But now?
Now it seems like a desperate ploy to revive themselves.

Since people are now even more reluctant to shell out $5 for an icky cup o’coffee, it feels like they are searching for a way to convince people it’s worth the cost. Like… sure it’s $5 BUT you are supporting your local businesses and getting live music!!!!

Personally, I’d rather brew my own and rock out to some music on my laptop. And it will cost me like $.20 a cup. The extra $4.80 I’ll give in a tip to my favorite Real Local restaurants.

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Mike July 19, 2009 at 3:29 pm: I think you have a great point there Jen. Starbucks can act like a local coffee shop, but the money people spend there won’t be staying local. No matter what Starbucks does, even if they donate to local charities, it won’t be the same.

Plus……mmmm pepermint mochas. My weakness.

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Chameleon@CoffeeBreak July 22, 2009 at 11:24 am: @John et al – I agree that it could be an excellent business move – but that doesn’t change how I feel about it. In fact, it makes me like it even less. My objection isn’t to them adopting things that work for neighborhood shops – live music, downscale atmosphere, comfy, beatup couches, etc – it’s the deliberate removal of the Starbucks name. I feel the same way about the fake competition among brands of coffee on the supermarket shelves – do you know how many “different” brands are all owned by the same company and putting money into the same pockets?

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